


Live, Laugh, Love (And Other Things Luffy Can't Eat)

by Pepsi (Pepsiiii)



Category: One Piece
Genre: "Character study", ASL Brothers, Domestic Fluff, Everyone important is here don't worry, Family Dynamics, Luffy Is a Little Shit, Luffy is just chilling and everyone is watching him and saying things, Multi, Protective Mugiwara no Ichimi | Straw Hat Pirates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-20
Updated: 2020-11-07
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:35:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24829189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pepsiiii/pseuds/Pepsi
Summary: What everyone fails to understand about Monkey D. Luffy (soon-to-be pirate king) is that he doesn’t just steal from anyone.He was picky.Whoever made the phrase ‘beggars can’t be choosers’ has obviously never met the Monkey D. Luffy because Luffy never begged for anything (other than food and attention but is it really begging if everyone is already in the process of giving it?).Or, Luffy is having a good time, falling in love and pissing everyone off ever
Relationships: Monkey D. Luffy & Mugiwara Kaizoku | Strawhat Pirates, Monkey D. Luffy & Portgas D. Ace & Sabo, Monkey D. Luffy/Roronoa Zoro
Comments: 14
Kudos: 262





	1. The Misconceptions Of One Monkey D. Luffy

**Author's Note:**

> Just little ficlets for Luffy and the rest of the straw hats. Love em to death

%

Luffy was a pirate.

He was also an asshole. 

He was an asshole pirate who stole everything. 

If people were capable of staring at the sun and absorbing the heat solely through their eyes, they’d find themselves very cold and very disappointed on the day Monkey D. Luffy came into their life. Luffy was brighter than the sun. Luffy was so bright that he outshone the sun with little difficulty whatsoever, arguably he outshone the sun so easily he had no need for the rays he took (he stole the way he ate, loud and proud, always taking  _ more and more _ until he was full and even then he was bound to reach for more— a takeaway plate if you will) and yet he still took them happily.

He took the heat and light, took it for himself, and shined for all to see unabashedly (unlike the sun, Luffy had no off switch, no moon to hide behind, no night to cover him and smother him into silence. He was as bright as he was alive and until the sea dried up and the fish began to fly freely in the sky, like birds who got lost at their intersection within the giant never-ending sky highway, he would stay that way— alive and bright that is) 

So anyway, Luffy comes into the lives of anyone ever and destroys everything.

Some people think Luffy destroys and steals quickly, in an instant. He comes and goes and everything is gone before they know it was even there— he took it all and has no plans to give it back because really why would he? They’re basically his anyway (Hearts are wonderful little trinkets to carry around from place to place, they looked adorable on his shelf within his cabin on the Thousand Sunny too. Every ship needed decoration). 

That Luffy would come into whomever’s life he chose to stumble into and would just mix everything around like broken blender (turning memories that were once heartbreaking into breathtaking, giving words new definitions, bringing new life into the lifeless moments of any given lifetime— doing all this so seamlessly and so easily it was hard to pick the pieces back up and put them back together the way they went in because now it was nothing more than a delicious Luffy made smoothie, also known as Nakamaship). But it was never that fast. 

Luffy  _ could  _ probably change someone’s whole world and outlook on life and it’s many phases in the span of 45 minutes if he had to. Probably. But Luffy (a surprisingly patient man when food isn’t in the equation) has never minded playing the long game. He doesn’t pry. Doesn’t constantly ask and wonder about the unknowns or the unanswered questions brought up by the very idea of someone being where they are today. He didn’t care much for what skeletons one had in their closet (assuming the skeleton didn’t sing and play multiple instruments that is) because it didn’t matter. Luffy having the backstory of his closest mate or the guy who smiled at him and served him a plate of salted lizard thigh made no difference in how he saw them now.

All that mattered was now. Nothing spoke for you like your current actions (unless you’re past is so loud, _ so dangerously loud _ , that someone like Luffy- _ always out of the loop _ and  _ disinterested in the news of anything ever, anywhere _ \- can know about it. Then it might speak. Just a  _ tad _ ). Luffy never was much of a grape person so he tended not to listen to the vines. He much preferred apples, no matter how far they fell from the tree- and usually, the rotten taste or worm or two did little to deter him. Luffy wasn’t picky. 

Except that’s a giant fucking  _ misconception.  _

What everyone fails to understand about Monkey D. Luffy (soon-to-be pirate king) is that he doesn’t just steal from anyone. He was picky. Whoever made the phrase ‘beggars can’t be choosers’ has obviously never met  _ the Monkey D. Luffy  _ because Luffy never begged for anything (other than food and attention but is it really begging if everyone is already in the process of giving it?). 

Luffy’s first-hand mate (soulmate, a partner in crime, number one, his Nakama, his swordsman,  _ his _ ) wasn’t begged to join the crew. 

He wasn’t even asked. Luffy doesn’t ask for things. (‘Real pirates don’t ask for anything’, says his older brother Ace.  _ ‘Real pirates take whatever they want whenever they want and use it however they want! _ ’, says his older brother Ace.  _ ‘Real leaders, _ ’ and it was important to emphasize the word  _ leaders _ because Sabo- Luffy’s other brother- had said it like it was an accomplishment to have and a title to bear with strength and tact,  _ ‘take what they want.’ _ ) 

Luffy  _ told  _ Zoro he’d join. With nothing to his name but a hat, two rubber fists, and a stomach that burnt through food faster than fire to a bottle of homemade liquor. He said it and smiled (god did he smile) and Zoro smiled and looked at his shitty little rowboat and saw a dog pissing on the side of it and in the moment decided that he might as well do this, might as well set out to join the straw hat boy (unknowingly leaving his door unlocked and heart on the kitchen counter for any passerby straw-hatted burglar to see and steal as easily as a kid would taking candy from a doctor’s candy basket, which sat outside in the waiting room waiting to be used after a visit). 

Luffy told Nami to join, told Usopp to join and told Sanji to join. He told them all. They might have prolonged the process for sure, but they joined. They joined and gave up their hearts to the captain of anyone’s dreams. The bright-eyed, smiling kind that seemed more like a simple kid than an asshole who took whatever he wanted, when he wanted, to the elation of everyone around him.

%


	2. "Nice Guy" Monkey D. Luffy; And Other Misconceptions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Looking at the list of official Strawhat members, Luffy was (arguably) the meanest (while no one in their right mind would ever describe Strawhat Luffy as ‘mean’ they would describe him as a ‘prick’ or a ‘dick’ and other titles ending in -ick and -tch).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Luffy lets kiss

It was assumed that Luffy was really nice. He ticked all the boxes to be considered (or assumed) to be a really nice guy. He smiled constantly, laughed just as much, was always looking to have a good time, helped those in need, and loved to just enjoy the wonders of life.

He was a (supposedly) genuinely nice guy. 

But Monkey D Luffy wasn’t a nice guy. He was a  _ good _ guy sure, a  _ great _ ,  _ life-saving  _ guy definitely— but he wasn’t particularly nice. 

Looking at the list of official Strawhat members, Luffy was (arguably) the meanest (while no one in their right mind would ever describe Strawhat Luffy as ‘ _ mean’  _ they would describe him as a ‘prick’ or a ‘dick’ and other titles ending in -ick and -tch).

Zoro, being on the crew the longest, was understandably the last to realize how mean Luffy could be. Zoro thought Luffy was great. He was straight forward, simple-minded ( _ like him _ ), and prioritized the most important things in life: food, fighting, and fun. Zoro can say that he’s always eaten a lot and fought more, but he  _ can’t  _ say with the utmost certainty that he’s spent most of his life having fun— so when Luffy appeared in his life (gifted to him like a Straw Hat adorned angel on a dirty navy base platter, sporting a smile polished with pure sea salt and God’s own spit; looking at him as if Zoro was perfect in every way for what he was being chosen for) Zoro thought the guy was ‘nice as hell’. 

Nami thought Luffy was a lot of things. She didn’t know if ‘nice as hell’ was one of the things she thought though. She had come into the straw hats wary of pirates as a whole (a major understatement), and the only reason she even stayed was because she was under the assumption Luffy was a nice guy. A good pirate. 

She learned very quickly how wrong she was when she watched Luffy kill a whole crew's worth of men in cold blood as their ship passed another. Of course, the smaller ship made the first move, choosing to fire cannons at them, and of course, they didn’t have my cannons to fire back so the only real option was to retaliate back however they could (which meant slicing cannonballs in half, shooting them back over using Luffy as a reflector and just sinking the ship as a whole). 

She didn’t know exactly what she was expecting (especially after she’d been living at sea, stealing from pirates, being surrounded by danger and bloodshed her whole life— really it was nothing new) but for some reason, she just thought that Luffy (the guy who just punched Buggy the Pirate Clown into  _ fucking space  _ probably) wouldn’t ever actually… kill. 

( _ He didn’t just kill either. He killed and then sat back down to eat more apples from their barrel of apples, it was a lot of apples. Nami thinks back to that day sometimes and finds herself thinking about how many apples they ate as they drifted across the sea. She knows Luffy ate, damn near, an entire barrel over the course of the trip by himself… all while killing people from time to time _ .) 

But Luffy did kill. Easily too (Luffy only killed the unmentionables of the pirate world, no big baddies, and murderers who destroy families. Just deckhands and marine grunts). Maybe it was because he was younger than Nami, or maybe it was because he wore that happy, carefree smile all the damn time, or maybe it was just the fact Luffy didn’t  _ look  _ like someone who kills people. Nami has seen a lot of pirates, seen a lot of killers too— but Luffy didn’t give off any of the ‘ _ I will end your life easily’  _ vibes. He was just Luffy.

The guy who ate and ate and ate forever and ever. This, arguably ( _ anything about Luffy  _ could be argued but when Nami really ponders the thought, she finds that she can’t think of many people who would actually fight her on these opinions— except maybe Ace. He had a brother complex Nami was just itching to mess around with but, separate wishes for separate stars, as they say), was something un-nice people did a lot. Shitty people even. 

If you asked Usopp when he knew Luffy was the biggest dick ever and also the coolest guy ever (second to Usopp himself- duh) it would probably be during their first real day on the open sea, free from the pain of the previous fight. Luffy was looking out at the sea, sitting atop the Merry sheep head as if he wasn’t very bandaged and still in a lot of pain (it was hard to tell because, for as loud as Luffy was about his hunger and need for fun, he didn’t actually complain much about his own state of being—  _ mental or physical. _ It was difficult to tell when he was in pain but Nami told Usopp Luffy was usually definitely in pain after a fight- probably, she wasn’t a Luffy expert yet- saying: _ “it’s there to see once you get to know him a bit”  _ so Usopp just assumed Luffy was always in pain. Not like he could tell the difference yet anyway).

Anyway so Luffy was up there and Usopp was coming on deck and saw him and called his name and waved. Luffy looks over at him, smiles, and stretches his arms to bring Usopp over to him, right atop the sheep head. 

“ _ Should we really be sitting up here?” _

_ “I’ll do whatever I want, Usopp! I’m the captain!”  _

Usopp nodded (because of course, he did) and said something about how that made perfect sense because captains like themselves could sit wherever they pleased. 

_ “Besides if I did fall, which I won’t, but if I did Zoro would save me _ .” 

“ _ Really?” _

_ “Yeah wanna see?” _

And then Luffy smiled (a wild yet soft smile, no different from a child right before they break something really expensive just to see what their parents are going to do) and jumped off into the water, drowning instantly.

Seconds later the sound of swords being dropped rang out into the open air and a body rushing past Usopp was all he saw. Zoro dove in, Usopp watched. Nami sat in her office mapping, sipping something alcohol. By her 4th sip, Zoro was out, coughing Luffy in tow. He climbs up onto the deck and sets Luffy down, being sure to wait close by should he need mouth-to-mouth. 

He doesn’t, and when he stops coughing and throwing up water (it wasn’t much but still) he looks at Zoro, pats his chest (he touched Zoro’s chest a lot but Usopp didn’t think too hard about it) and laughs. If Zoro’s more tired expression (opposed to pissed off and fucking terrified) said anything, it was that this wasn’t new. That this happened so often they could laugh about it easily. That meant, Luffy had to be a dick. Flinging himself off the boat just for shits and giggles, attention maybe— that’s what assholes do. Usopp thought Luffy was an insane asshole (in truth he was just an asshole). 

Moments later, with a raspy voice Luffy says:

“Wanna see me lick my own dick? I can!”

Zoro, already taking his shirt off to put it somewhere to dry, adds, “He can and you gotta see it once or he won’t ever shut up.” 

So Usopp, like any teenage boy, says “fuck yes” and then watches as Luffy stretches his dick out and hears Zoro laugh as Luffy makes a sour expression, and hears himself gag when he watches it all happen. Right then Usopp believes he met the coolest guy ever. Definitely.

Still a dick though. 

Sanji knew Luffy was a dick when Luffy looked him in the eyes and said his food was amazing. 


	3. A Moment of Sight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luffy wasn’t evil. 
> 
> Nami knew Luffy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is just a short little one-shot I never finished. Maybe more later, probably not though.
> 
> Enjoy!!

Luffy wasn’t evil. 

Nami  _ knew _ Luffy. 

_ Luffy _ stole food from others plates when they weren’t looking and laughed when they yelled at him;  _ Luffy _ peed into the ocean and rambled on about the fish thinking it probably tastes good (meat flavoring or something ridiculous like that);  _ Luffy  _ walked into a room and lit it up far more than any light from an open window could, more than any candle lamp, more than any devil fruit power (Nami didn’t know if there was a specific power that made light or something but seeing how there were powers for literally everything imaginable and unimaginable— she didn’t put it past the fruit’s  _ many  _ capabilities). 

_ Luffy _ was an entity of simplistic good. He was the one son-of-a-bitch pirate on this shitty, shitty earth capable of even being a  _ pirate  _ (a fucking pirate. The one profession known for nothing but murder, stealing, ruining lives, and destroying homes. Well, that and being a 

High ranking Marine or government official she supposed). 

_ Luffy  _ was a pirate and he only smiled and laughed and beat the utter shit out of the shitty life-ruining other pirates (but didn’t fucking kill them! She would kill them.  _ Luffy _ is far better than her). He did all this regularly, always.

So explain what _this_ was.

Explain why Nami had tried to save Usopp as he bled out under her; as Chopper went from wound to wound, patching and sewing, wrapping and cutting, swabbing, and washing. The ground was soaked in blood; littered with torn cloth and broken glass. 

This wasn’t a completely new occurrence. They get hurt. It happens. But, they never— it’s never  _ because _ of Luffy.

_ Not Luffy.  _

So now a week later Nami feels like the world has been kicked off its well-kept axis.

She, almost as if her eyes were painfully opened, saw things she just… hadn’t ever really seen. 

And worst of all, she didn’t think she’d ever be able to see anything else.

**Author's Note:**

> I've listened to 'One World' and 'Thousand Dreamers' 200 times in the last hour- I am alive.  
> *humming 'WE ARE' as I sip at my own pitcher of sparkling seawater mixed with freshly cut devil fruit*
> 
> you guys know the deal, comment your thoughts, praise me insistently, go on twitter and yell at me to be productive. It really means a lot when you do!
> 
> //Twt//@MrsHaiiba


End file.
